Spherical α-Fe2O3 nanoparticles have been prepared using lauric acid as a non-aqueous medium and FeCl(3)(.)6H(2)O as starting precursor. The products were characterized by means of various experimental methods. The infrared spectra indicated that the α-Fe2O3 nanoparticles are capped with laurate resulting from the reaction process. The obtained spherical α-Fe2O3 nanoparticles with diameters of about 150 nm are polycrystalline in nature, consisting of large numbers of smaller sub-units of around 20 nm. The final α-Fe2O3 nanoparticles exhibit special magnetic properties with a small remnant magnetization of 0.09515 emu g(-1) and a high coercivity of 817.5 Oe at room temperature. The experimental results suggest that the lauric acid plays an important role in determining the particle size, shape, microstructure and magnetic properties of the final α-Fe2O3 nanoparticles. © 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.